Reviews

Books reviewed:
Kathryn Tanner: Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology
Charles Marsh: God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights
John D. Caputo: The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion Without Religion
David Toole: Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo: Theological Reflections on Nihilism, Tragedy and Apocalypse
George R. Hunsberger: Bearing the Witness of the Spirit: Lesslie Newbigin's Theology of Cultural Plurality
Peter Ochs: Peirce, Pragmatism and the Logic of Scripture
Elizabeth A. Johnson: Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints
Stephen H. Webb: On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals
Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza: Sharing Her Word: Feminist Biblical Interpretation in Context
Steven Kepnes, Peter Ochs and Robert Gibbs: Reasoning After Revelation: Dialogues in Postmodern Jewish Philosophy
Stephen L. Brock: Action and Conduct: Thomas Aquinas and the Theory of Action
Emmanuel Levinas: Of God Who Comes to Mind
Timothy Houston Polk: The Biblical Kierkegaard: Reading by the Rule of Faith
Robert Barron: And Now I See … A Theology of Transformation
Stephen Crites: Dialectic and Gospel in the Development of Hegel's Thinking
John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward (eds): Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology     

Re:Views

Evaluating Federal Social Programs: An Uncertain Art: Sar A. Levitan and Gregory Wurzburg ; Kalamazoo, Mich.: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1979 The Overeaters: Eating Styles and Personality: Jonathan Kurland Wise and Susan Kierr Wise ; New York: Human Sciences Press, 1979 Transpersonal Communication: How to Establish Contact with Yourself and Others: Barry K. Weinhold and Lynn C. Elliott ; Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1979 Therapy American Style: Personal Power through Self-Help: Kenneth B. Metheny and Richard J. Riordan ; Chicago Dynamics of Human Relations in Vocational Education: The Development of Self-Confidence and a Sense of Mastery: Duane L. Blake ; Cranston, R. I.: Carroll Press, 1979 Adult Female Human Being in the 1980s: A Handbook for Lifelong Education: Fran Murray and Mildred Erickson ; East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University Press, 1980 The Winner's Way: A Transactional Guide for Living, Working, and Learning: Gisele Weisman ; Monterey, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1980 Marriages and Families: Essie Lee , Ed.; New York: Julian Messner, 1978 “I'm Going to Visit My Daddy”: Deirdre Conway Rand ; San Rafael, Calif. Bias in Mental Testing: Arthur R. Jensen ; New York Handbook of Human Services for Older Persons: Monica Bychowski Holmes and Douglas Holmes ; New York Family Therapy and Evaluation through Art: Hanna Yaxa Kwiatkowska ; Springfield, III. Counseling Strategies and Objectives: Second Edition : Harold Hackney and L. Sherilyn Cormier ; Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Group Counseling: Fundamental Concepts and Procedures: Robert C. Berg and Garry L. Landreth ; Muncie, Ind. Alcoholism: A Treatment Manual: Wayne Poley , Gary Lea , and Gail Vibe ; New York Go For It!: Martha Douglas ; San Francisco National Directory of Women's Employment Programs: Who They Are, What They Do Women's Work Force of Wider Opportunities for Women : Washington, D.C. Learning after College: Nevitt Sanford ; Orinda, Calif. Credit by Examination Comes of Age: Implications of APP and CLEP for Colleges, Schools, and Students: The College Board ; Princeton, N.J. Not Working: An Oral History of the Unemployed: Harry Maurer ; New York Talking It Out: A Guide to Effective Communication and Problem Solving: Joseph M. Strayhorn , Jr .; Champaign, III. The Path of Least Resistance: preparing Employees for Change: Ken Hultman ; Austin, Tex.: Learning Concepts, 1979 A Special Educator's Guide to Vocational Training: Robert A. Weisgerber ; Springfield, III.: Charles C. Thomas, 1980 Ethical and Professional Standards for Academic Psychologists and Counsellors: Charles W. Sherrer and M. Sylvia Sherrer ; Springfield, Ill.: Charles C Thomas, 1980 Jogotherapy: Jogging as a Therapeutic Strategy Frederick D. Harper : Alexandria, Va.: Douglass Publishers, 1979     

Re: Views

Book reviewed in this article: Exploring Human Values: Psychological and Philosophical Considerations: Richard A. Kalish and Kenneth W. Collier You and the Senior Boom: New Challenges and Opportunities for All: Louise Minter Odell and Charles Edward Odell The Religious Education of Preschool Children: Lucie W. Barber Transactional Analysis for Police Personnel: Anne T. Romano The Facts About “Drug Abuse”: The Drug Abuse Council; New York Implementation of Independent Living Programs in Rehabilitation: Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (William P. Clark, Study Group Chairman and B. Douglas Rice, University Sponsor) Education in the 80's: Health Education: Robert D. Russell, Ed. The College Cost Book: 1981–82: (2nd Ed.) The College Board New York: College Entrance Examination Board The Promotable Woman: Becoming a Successful Manager: Norma Carr-Ruffino Therapeutic Psychology: Fundamentals of Counseling and Psychotherapy (4th ed.): Lawrence M. Brammer and Everett L. Shostrom A Review of Behavioral Group Therapy, 1980: An Annual Review.: Dennis Upper and Steven M. Ross (Eds.) The Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practice Series: (See individual listings below): Book 1: The Skills of Diagnostic Planning: W.A. Anthony, R.M. Pierce, M.R. Cohen, and J.R. Cannon Book 1: The Skills of Diagnostic Planning W.A. Anthony, R.M. Pierce, M.R. Cohen, and J.R. Cannon Book 2: The Skills of Rehabilitation Programming: W.A. Anthony, R.M. Pierce, M.R. Cohen, and J.R. Cannon Book 3: The Skills of Professional Evaluation: M.R. Cohen, W.A. Anthony, R.M. Pierce, L.A. Spaniol, and J.R. Cannon Book 4: The Skills of Career Counseling: R.M. Pierce, M.R. Cohen, W.A. Anthony, B.F. Cohen, and T.W. Friel Book 5: The Skills of Career Placement: R.M. Pierce, M.R. Cohen, W.A. Anthony, B.F. Cohen, and T.W. Friel Book 6: The Skills of Community Service Organization: M.R. Cohen, R.L. Vitalo, W.A. Anthony, and R.M. Pierce Experiential Psychotherapies in Australia: Dick Armstrong and Phil Boas, (Eds.) Black Children/White Children: Competence, Socialization and Social Structure: Zena Smith Blau Counselling Psychology: S. Narayano Rao Maslach Burnout Inventory, Research Edition, Manual.: Christina Maslach and Susan E. Jackson Planning and Using a Total Personnel System: Richard A. Kaumeyer, Jr. Your Career: Choices, Chances, Changes: David C. Borchard, John J. Kelly, and Nancy Pat K. Weaver     

Re:Views

Religious Conversion and Personal Identity: How and Why People Change: V. Bailey Gillespie Case Studies in Clinical and School Psychology: Ralph F. Blanco and Joseph G. Rosenfeld Evaluating Educational Environments: Procedures, Measures, Findings, and Policy Implications: Rudolf H. Moos HELP: A Working Guide to Self-Help Groups: Alan Gartner and Frank Riessman, Eds. The Burned Out Administrator: Carolyn L. Vash An Introduction to Counseling: Gary S. Belkin Cocaine Users: A Representative Case Approach: Tames V. Spotts and Franklin C. Shontz Approaches to Counseling and Psychotherapy: A Brief Overview of Issues, Systems, and Applications: Michael Braswell, Thomas Seay, and Eugene Anderson My Problem Is …: Margaret Dewey Joys of Counseling: Sinickal Concepts for People Helpers: Daniel Sinick Graduate Student Survival: W. Richard Dukelow Counseling for Career Development (2nd ed.): E. L. Tolbert Measuring Performance in Human Service Systems: James F. Budde Career Development and Counseling of Women: L. Sunny Hansen and Rita S. Rapoza Statistics and the Counselor: Harvey W. Trimmer, Jr.     

Self-reported stress and psychophysiological reactivity in paramedics

Background: As an important group of health care professionals, paramedics accomplish sophisticated and frequently stressful tasks.

Design: The study investigated self-reported stress burden, self-reported health status, coping strategies, personality traits and psychophysiological reactivity in paramedics.

Methods: 30 paramedics were compared with 30 professionals from other disciplines, in terms of self-reported stress, physical complaints, coping strategies, personality traits and psychophysiological reactivity during aversive visual and acoustic stimuli, and cognitive challenge. Regression analyses were performed for the prediction of stress burden and physical complaints in paramedics according to coping and personality factors.

Results: Paramedics reported lower stress and less somatic complaints, and exhibited reduced electrodermal activity and heart rate responses to experimental stimuli, as well as higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia. They indicated less negative coping strategies, reduced empathy, and higher conscientiousness and sensation seeking. Higher self-reported stress burden and more physical symptoms were associated inter alia with more negative coping strategies, less conscientiousness and lower empathy.

Conclusion: The findings support the notion of reduced self-reported stress burden, and improved general health and stress resistance in paramedics. In addition to health benefits, stress tolerance may contribute to the prevention of performance decline during situations in which health and life are at stake.     

军事飞行员工作绩效结构的分析

通过对30名高等级军事飞行员的访谈和相关资料的研究初步确定了11个条目的任务绩效和关系绩效考核提纲;由109名上级使用这个提纲对507名现役军事飞行员进行了绩效评估,另外飞行员间进行互评;使用验证性因素分析的方法对提纲进行了优化,并进行了信度和效度考察。结果表明,军事飞行员的工作绩效应由任务绩效和关系绩效两部分来描述,其中任务绩效包含四个因素,分别为：飞行绩效、空中特情下的表现及事故征候的发生率、业务理论水平和体能状况;关系绩效包含6个因素,分别为：遵章守纪表现、工作主动性、责任心、安心服役、钻研精神和协作精神。     

Facets of conscientiousness and objective markers of health status

Objective: To examine the association between six facets of conscientiousness (self-control, order, industriousness, traditionalism, virtue, responsibility) and objective markers of health status, including adiposity, blood markers and physical performance.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of participants from the health and retirement study (N = 12,188).

Main Outcome Measures: Adiposity (body mass index, waist circumference), blood markers (A1c, HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, cystatin c, c-reactive protein) and physical performance (lung function, grip strength, walking speed).

Results: Four of the six facets of conscientiousness were associated with nearly all of the health markers: Self-control, organisation, industriousness and responsibility were related to lower adiposity, healthier metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory markers, and better performance on physical assessments. Traditionalism and virtue had fewer associations with these objective markers.

Conclusion: This research took a facet-level approach to the association between conscientiousness and objective markers of health status. This research builds on models of conscientiousness and health to suggest that, in addition to health-risk behaviours, facets of conscientiousness are associated with more favourable biomedical markers of health status.     

Psychological adjustment to cleft lip and/or palate: A narrative review of the literature

Objective: Adjustment to cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is multifaceted, involving several domains of psychological and social functioning. A substantial increase in research in this area has been evident in recent years, along with a preliminary shift in how adjustment to CL/P is conceptualised and measured. An updated and comprehensive review of the literature is needed in light of the rapidly expanding and changing field.

Design: A narrative review of 148 quantitative and qualitative studies published between January 2004 and July 2015.

Main outcome measures: Findings are presented according to five key domains of adjustment: Developmental Trajectory, Behaviour, Emotional Well-being, Social Experiences and Satisfaction with Appearance and Treatment. Data pertaining to General Psychological Well-being were also examined.

Results: The overall impact of CL/P on psychological adjustment appears to be low. Nonetheless, the review demonstrates the complexity of findings both within and across domains, and highlights recurring methodological challenges.

Conclusions: Research findings from the last decade are considered to be largely inconclusive, although some areas of emerging consensus and improvements in the approaches used were identified. Efforts to collect data from large, representative and longitudinal samples, which are comparable across studies and encompassing of the patient perspective, should be doubled.     

Journal reviews

Articles reviewed: Astor, James: ‘Some Jungian and Freudian perspectives on the Oedipus myth and beyond’. Colman Warren: ‘That within which passes show: Hamlet and the unknowable Self’. Halberstadt-Freud H. C: ‘Electra versus Oedipus à Femininity reconsidered’. Kulish, Nancy & Holtzman, Deanna: ‘Persephone, the loss of virginity and the female Oedipus complex’ Hopkins, Linda B: ‘D. W. Winnicott's analysis of Masud Khan: a preliminary study of failures of object usage’. Miletic, Michael (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Miletic, Michael J. (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Ornstein, Anna: ‘The fate of narcissistic rage in psychotherapy’. Solomon, Hester McFarland: ‘Love, Paradox of Self and Other’. Stack, Carolyn: ‘The analyst's new clothes: the impact of the therapist's unconscious conflicts on the treatment process’. Von Der Tann, Matthias: ‘Was lesen Jungianer in Berlin für das Examen?’–‘What do Jungians in Berlin read for their final paper?’     

Psychological adjustment to craniofacial conditions (excluding oral clefts): A review of the literature

Objective: A congenital craniofacial anomaly (CFA) is expected to impact upon several domains of psychological, emotional and social functioning, yet no recent reviews have comprehensively summarised the available literature. Further, existing reviews tend to draw upon literature in the field of cleft lip and palate, and do not give substantive attention to other types of CFAs.

Design: A review of 41 papers published between January 2000 and March 2016 pertaining to psychological adjustment to CFAs.

Main outcome measures: Findings are presented according to key psychological domains: General Psychological Well-being, Quality of Life, Behaviour, Emotional Well-being, Social Experiences, Appearance, and Treatment-Related Experiences.

Results: Current literature offers a contradictory picture of adjustment to CFAs. Psychological adjustment appeared to be comparable to norms and reference groups in approximately half of the papers related to non-syndromic CFAs, while more variation was found across domains among samples with syndromic CFAs. Associations were found between adjustment, physical health and cognitive function in several papers. The review identified a number of gaps in the literature, such as the inclusion of a wide range of diagnoses within research samples.

Conclusions: This review demonstrates the complexity of findings, both within and across domains, and highlights a number of methodological challenges.     

Book Reviews

J oseph C ampbell : Creative mythology
E leanor B ertine : Jung's contribution to our time
M ichael B alint : The basic fault
H einrich R acker : Transference and counter-transference
D avid B akan : Disease, pain and sacrifice
A senath P etrie : Individuality in pain and suffering
B runo B ettelheim : The empty fortress: infantile autism and the birth of the self
P aul R oazen : Freud: political and social thought
J oel A llison , S. J. B latt and C. N. Z imet : The interpretation of psychological tests
C harles R ycroft : Anxiety and neurosis
A nthony S torr : Human aggression
M ichael C ourtenay : Sexual discord in marriage
J olande J acobi . Frauenprobleme, Eheprobleme
J. M. H eaton : The Eye; phenomenology and psychology of function and disorder     

Re: Views

Book reviewed in this article: Pregnant Too Soon: Adoption Is An Option; Jeanne Warren Lindsay 120 Careers in the Health Care Field: Melvin Alperin and Stanley Alperin Cambridge Your Career: Choices, Chances, Changes: David C. Borchard, John J. Kelly, and Nancy Pat K. Weaver Dubuque Handbook on Stress and Anxiety: Irwin, L. Kutash and Louis B. Schlesinger Working Life: A Social Science Contribution to Work Reform: Bertil Gardel and Gunn Johansson Modern Guidance Practices in Teaching: Charles R. Foster, Paul W. Fitzgerald, and Rubye E. Beal Springfield Career Planning: Skills to Build Your Future: Clarke G. Carney, Cinda Field Wells, and Don Streufert Social Work with Families: Theory and Practice: Carlton E. Munson, Ed. Career Guide to Professional Associations: A Directory of Organizations by Occupation Field (2nd ed.): Cranston, R.I. Women and Ambition: A Bibliography: Patricia Spencer Faunce Metuchen Personal Education and Community Development in College Residence Halls: David A. DeCoster and Phyllis Mable, Eds. A Practical Guide for Making Decisions: D.D. Wheeler and I.L. Janis School Effectiveness: A Reassessment of the Evidence: George F. Madaus, Peter W. Airasian, and Thomas Kellaghan Introduction to Organizational Behavior: A Situational Approach: Robin Stuart-Kotze Reston Group Counseling for Personal Mastery—Everything You Need to Know to Lead Any Group in Any Setting: Wayne W. Dyer and John Vriend Handbook for Recruiting at Minority Colleges: Andre G. Beaumont and Rena D. Goldbolt, Eds. Human Behavior Improving Performance at Work: Gary Dessler Reston Total Rehabilitation: George Nelson Wright The Professional Job Changing System: World's Fastest Way To Get a Better Job (9th ed.): Robert Jameson Gerberg Verona     

‘It was all intertwined’: Illness representations and self-management in patients with cancer and anxiety/depression

Objective: Cancer and anxiety/depression frequently co-occur, leading to poorer outcomes for these illnesses. However, the majority of existing research investigates how participants view single illnesses alone. This study aimed to explore the content of individuals’ multimorbid representations and how these relate to their coping behaviours and self-management strategies for cancer and anxiety/depression.

Design: A semi-structured qualitative research design with theoretical thematic analysis.

Main Outcome Measures: Multimorbid illness representations, coping behaviours, and self-management strategies.

Results: In interviews with 21 participants multimorbid representations varied, three participants viewed cancer and anxiety/depression as unrelated, five participants were uncertain about the relationship between cancer and anxiety/depression, and the majority of participants perceived cancer and anxiety/depression as related. This third group of participants often described relationships as causal, with representations having both positive and negative influences on coping behaviours and self-management strategies. Representations were shown to change over the course of the cancer experience, with fear of cancer recurrence and the influence of participants’ most challenging illness also discussed.

Conclusions: People hold multimorbid illness representations that can influence self-management. An awareness of these representations by researchers, health professionals, and patients is important for the creation of future interventions that aim to improve and maintain patient wellbeing.     

Psycho-ophthalmology: Contributions of Health psychology to the assessment and treatment of glaucoma

Background: Asymptomatic in its early stages, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. While psychosocial factors are taken into consideration for a host of diseases such as cancer, heart disease and autoimmune conditions, to date, psychological issues have been ignored in the clinical management of glaucoma.

Objective: This work reviews the most relevant contributions from a health psychology perspective for the assessment and treatment of glaucoma, which is emerging in the field of psycho-ophthalmology.

Method: To provide scientific evidence regarding contributions of psychology to the comprehension of glaucoma, a bibliographic review of three databases (Psicodoc, PsycInfo and Medline) was conducted, spanning the period between 1940 and 2016.

Results: This review yielded a total of 66 studies published in the period analysed and identified three areas where health psychology has made substantive contributions to glaucoma screening, monitoring and treatment: the emotional impact on patients suffering from glaucoma, the adherence to treatment and the effects of stress on intraocular pressure.

Conclusions: A health psychology approach for research and therapy of glaucoma must focus on the management of the negative affect associated with the diagnosis, the optimisation of treatment adherence and the stress management of the intraocular pressure measurements.     

A meta-analysis of the association between forgiveness of others and physical health

Objective: This meta-analysis tested the relation between forgiveness of others and physical health (PH) with age, gender, race, education level, employment status, sample type, research design, type of PH variables, and publication status as the potential moderators.

Design: Eligible studies had participants with or without physical or mental health problems and had quantitative data on forgiveness of others and PH. The random-effects model was used to aggregate Fisher’s z effect sizes, which were converted back to correlation coefficients.

Main Outcome Measures: State forgiveness (forgiving an offense or offender) measures, trait forgiveness (a disposition to forgive) measures and physical health measures were included in the meta-analysis.

Results: A hundred and twenty-eight studies (N?=?58,531) were retrieved, in which the mean effect sizes showed a significant positive relationship between forgiveness of others and PH (r?=?0.14, p?<?0.001, 95% CI [0.11, 0.17]). Further, no moderators showed a significant relation between forgiveness of others and PH.

Conclusions: The positive relation between forgiveness of others and PH was not affected by potential moderators. Because the results are correlational, more forgiveness interventions may be needed to examine the causal effect of the relation between forgiveness of others and PH.     

Development and initial validation of the job loss grief scale

Background: Research on complicated grief (CG) symptoms following job loss is surprisingly rare. Involuntary job loss can turn someone’s world upside down and can result in loss of identity, social contacts, and self-worth. In this study, we drew on the literature on major life events in conceptualizing involuntary job loss as a significant and potentially devastating life event.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate an instrument that measures job loss-related CG symptoms, the Job Loss Grief Scale (JLGS). The purpose of the JLGS is to foster systematic research on CG symptoms following job loss.

Design: A cross-sectional study

Methods: We recruited Dutch workers who had lost their job, 130 men and 158 women with an average age of 49.6 years. To examine the psychometric properties of the JLGS and its associations with other concepts we conducted correlational and confirmatory factor analyses.

Results: CFA revealed that the JLGS was a one-dimensional instrument, and that CG symptoms were distinguishable from depression and anxiety symptoms.

Conclusion: The JLGS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure job loss-related CG symptoms. The availability of the JLGS could stimulate systematic research on the antecedents and consequences of involuntary job loss.     

The effects of yoga on stress and psychological health among employees: an 8- and 16-week intervention study

Background: The stresses of modern work life necessitate effective coping strategies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. Yoga has been found to reduce stress in clinical samples, but studies are needed to examine standard gym yoga classes among functional individuals.

Objectives: This study investigated the effects of 8- and 16-week gym yoga on stress and psychological health.

Design and Method: Ninety individuals reporting moderate-to-high stress were randomly assigned to 16 consecutive weeks of yoga, or to a waitlist crossover group who did not practice yoga for 8 weeks then practiced yoga for 8 weeks. Stress and psychological health variables were assessed at baseline, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks.

Results: Significant reductions in stress and all psychological health measures were found within the Yoga group over 16 weeks. When compared to the control group, yoga practitioners showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, and general psychological health, and significant increases in well-being. The group who did not practice yoga showed significant decreases in stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia after they crossed over and practiced yoga for 8 weeks.

Conclusions: Gym yoga appears to be effective for stress amelioration and promotion of psychological health among workers experiencing stress.     

Manifestations of anxiety and coping strategies in patients with metastatic lung cancer and their family caregivers: a qualitative study

Objective: Advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is common, deadly, and associated with impairing anxiety for patients and caregivers who often co-experience similar symptoms that can vary together over time. We aimed to discover themes as to how NSCLC patients and caregivers express and cope with anxiety.

Design: Semi-structured interviews of patient-caregiver dyads (N?=?21), coded using NVivo Software.

Main Outcome Measures: Open-ended questions on anxiety mutuality, giving or receiving care, communication, and the most difficult aspects of having or caring for someone with Stage IV NSCLC.

Results: Analyses revealed that patients and caregivers were linked psychologically, co-experiencing symptoms of distress or coping, rising and falling together. Shared patient and caregiver themes emerged of cognitive, behavioural and physiological manifestations of anxiety and coping mechanisms.

Conclusions: Patient and caregiver expressions of anxiety and coping methods mapped onto the cognitive-behavioural model, implying potential use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to address these issues. This expands understanding of symptoms and coping strategies in NSCLC, explores patient-caregiver interaction, and confirms the need for future clinical intervention. Future research should focus on development and dissemination of CBT-based dyadic interventions addressing anxiety in NSCLC patients and caregivers.     

Blood pressure responses of defensive hostile women when facing a real stress task

Objective: This study investigated the importance of the combination of the hostility and defensiveness variables as psychosocial factors that predict the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction. We examined the impact of a stressful situation on blood pressure responses, using a continuous psychophysiological assessment approach.

Design: We measured the evolution of these responses over three experimental phases (adaptation, task and recovery), also considering a minute-by-minute analysis within each phase.

Main Outcome Measures: We used the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and the Social Desirability Questionnaire to form four groups (high hostility and high defensiveness, high hostility and low defensiveness, low hostility and high defensiveness, and low hostility and low defensiveness).

Results: We expected the group of hostile defensive women to record higher activation (task phase: an academic exam) and slower habituation (recovery phase) compared to the other groups. The results confirmed our hypothesis, as the profile of the hostile defensive individuals was one of constant or sensitization during the task phase, while during the recovery phase those individuals underwent a slow recovery.

Conclusion: Therefore, it can be indicated that the low hostility and low defensive group is the most adaptive, as recorded very little activation in response, and rapid recovery.